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POP3 leave server messages unread

I'd like to use POP3 on an email client so I can have a local backup of my email that's always current. IMAP doesn't download the full message, so it won't work for this purpose without manual intervention and offline mode. However, POP3 is causing all messages to appear "Read" when I check them via my phone, webmail, or another client. I have set Thunderbird to leave the emails on the server, but how do I leave them marked Unread?

Best answer chosen by User

Thanks for posting your question. I'm more than happy to assist you today. Since POP3 downloads the message from the server, the server marks the messages as read. There's no solution to fixing this since the server seems to treat the downloaded messages as being read. We advise using IMAP if you're going to access your email from multiple devices since the message is left on the server (and thus you always have a copy).

Even though you are downloading the message and leaving a copy on the server since you have a copy on the server, it still thinks you've read it.